Childhood friend Bengt Berg got to meet Sven-Göran Eriksson one last time.
Then something was different with “Svennis”.
– I’m convinced of it, that he felt: “Now it’s no longer possible, now it’s enough”, he says to Expressen.
It was in January earlier this year that Sven-Göran Eriksson, Sweden’s most meritorious football coach, told us that he had suffered from an incurable and fatal cancer. He touched everyone when he also revealed that he had at best a year to live, and throughout the year tributes have poured in from all over the world.
Last meeting with Svennis
Sven-Göran Eriksson got to receive a standing ovation at the Sports Gala, and he then got to fulfill a dream of coaching Liverpool in a match, and he also got to receive tributes and love during a trip to his former clubs in Italy. Last week the documentary “Svennis” premiered on Amazon Prime Video, but then the Swede’s health was too poor for him to participate. And on Monday the news came that he had passed away, aged 76.
Sven-Göran Eriksson fell asleep surrounded by his family and those closest to him in the house in Sunne, where he spent most of his illness. Just last Friday, agent Bo Gustavsson was at Sven-Göran Eriksson’s home, but then noticed that something had changed.
– Not once has he complained about his situation, which is rather strange considering that terrible disease. He didn’t complain now either, but you noticed that he really wasn’t in the mood, he tells Expressen, and continues:
– It felt like a turning point. It hit really hard.
“I am convinced of it”
Bengt Berg is a writer and childhood friend of Svennis. He is now working on a book about the iconic coach, which will be released on September 23. He remembers the last meeting with Sven-Göran.
– What people reacted to was that he was not at all interested in talking. He didn’t want to talk at all. We had some questions about the book, but he wasn’t interested in talking about it at all, he says.
– And it was very uncharacteristic of him. My God, it went really fast.
Sven-Göran Eriksson was, despite the illness, positive. He often talked about “fooling the brain” on the subject of death. But Bengt Berg believes that Svennis, during their last meeting, had understood that it was close.
– I am convinced of that, says Berg, and continues:
– I think he thought: “Now it’s no longer possible, now enough is enough”. And it’s poignant. When I think of his last days… in some sense they were heroic. He did not fight death, but he ignored it. He said it all the time, “The brain must cheat death”.
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